A large range of woodturning tools are available for shaping pieces of timber into hollow-ware articles. Those tools include cutting tools such as chisels and gouges as well as scraping tools such as scrapers, and are variously shaped to permit rapid rough cutting and scraping followed by more careful fine surface finishing of timber in order to form a smooth hollow-ware article quickly.
In using these tools a cutting edge is usually pushed into the timber fibres to force their severing and, particularly in end-grain hollowing of timber, that pushing occurs against or across the fibre grain. Whilst a fine surface finish can be achieved, it does require considerable expertise and concentration on the part of the toolturner in order to minimise ragged tearing of the timber fibre or more serious timber gouging. As such, fine finishing can be difficult to achieve and indeed articles can be severely damaged during that finishing, particularly by inexperienced woodturners.
In addition, existing cutting tools fine finish article hollows most effectively when a trailing corner of the tool cutting edge is very close to the timber surface being cut. Unless considerable care is exercised that trailing corner the timber. That can result in irreparable damage to the timber. Moreover, the tool can react violently causing it to be wrenched from the control of the woodturner with possible dangerous consequences.